In August of 2012, Nathan and I were testing four motors of various speeds on a prototype spinning reel. The motorized reel that Nate had used for close to 28 years had no real power to retrieve lures or land fish. Nate would raise his spinning rod to the 12 o’clock position, press and hold down the power button on the rod handle and at the same time lower the rod to the 3 o’clock position as the motor retrieved the line to the reel spool.

Most of his fishing was vertical jigging or casting short distances with a float and jig combination. As it turned out, one of the motors (completely different design from the other three) had the power and torque to land a fish with no “rod pumping” needed.

This video was taken to show Jeff Zernov, who was sourcing the motors and other components for this project, just how powerful this motor was and the implications for what was to become the M-POW-R REEL™ project.

After this video was shot, I measured and weighed the fish with a digital scale. It was 19 inches long and weighed 2.07 pounds!